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<metadesc>Book review siteExpert, with books full book reviews from the many most walks of literary life - ; fiction, biography, crime, cookery and anything else that takes our fancy. There are also lots of author interviews and top tens.</metadesc>Hello from The Bookbag, a book review site, featuring books from all the many walks of literary life non- [[:Category:Fiction|fiction]], [[:Category:Biography|biography]], [[:Category:Crime|crime]], [[:Category:Cookery|cookery]] and anything else that takes our fancy. At Bookbag Towers the bookbag sits at the side of the desk. Itchildren's the bag we take to the library and the bookshop. Sometimes it holds the latest releases, but at other times there'll be old favourites, books for the children, & self-published books for the home. They're sometimes our own books or books from the local library. They're often books sent to us by publishers and we promise to tell you exactly what we think about them. You might not want to read through a full review, so we'll give you a quick review which summarises what we felt about the book and tells you whether or not we think you should buy or borrow it. There are also lots of [[:Category:Interviews|plus author interviews]], and all sorts of [[:Category:Lists|& top tens]] - all of which you can find on our [[features]] page. If you're stuck for something to read, check out the [[Book Recommendations|recommendations]] page.</metadesc>

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==The Best New Books== '''Read [[:Category:New Reviews|new reviews by category]]. '''<br> '''Read [[:Category:Features|the latest features]].''' '''Read [[Forthcoming Publications|reviews of books about to be published]].{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Josh LaceyTom Percival|title=Two Tigers on a StringThe Wrong Shoes|rating=45

|summary=BenWill's not too keen to be sharing his bedroom with his half-brotherlife is difficult, Frankin a multitude of ways. But you donHe is bullied because he has 'the wrong shoes', he has the wrong shoes because his dad can't work and doesn't have to be enough money for even the hero most basic of things like food, and his dad can't work because he lost his job at the college, was working a detective adventure such as this book to know cash-in-hand job on a building site and had an accident. Throw into that mix the fact that as Frankhis mum and dad are separated, and Will's mother life seems bleak in every direction. And yet, he still has vanished from the face a tiny amount of the Earth, Ben will let it lie - for a whilehope. Nor He is it too surprising good at art, and clings to see the four Misfitz togethermoments of joy when he is drawing, on another casethat feel like a light at the end of a long, as they go on the hunt for the missing womandark tunnel.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1407109782</amazonuk>1398527122

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Julia WilliamsSylvie Cathrall|title=Last ChristmasA Letter to the Luminous Deep|rating=4.5|genre=Women's Science Fiction|summary=With Christmas fast approaching, what better way of getting in the spirit of things There are few greater joys than by reading this excellent a book that captures the joys and stresses of the festive season so well? The reader follows four different people – Catherine Tinsall and her husband Noel, Marianne Moore and Gabriel Northwhich lives up to a compelling premise. Each And this is one of these characters have their own reasons for not really looking forward to Christmas (mainly because of the experience of last Christmas) and these reasons slowly become apparent to the reader as the story progressesthem.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847560865</amazonuk>0356522776

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nigel McCrery0008517061|title=Core of EvilDeath in a Lonely Place|author=Stig Abell

|summary=Violet Chambers becomes Daisy Wilson through an aromatic cup of teaFormer Metropolitan Police detective, Jake Johnson, flavoured with Christmas roseshas settled into his rustic life at Little Sky. '"There are all kinds There’s perhaps a little uncertainty about the future of horrible things in the Christmas rosehis life with his vet girlfriend," she saidLivia and her daughter Diana, watching as moving in together would mean a lot of compromise: does Jake give up his off-grid and relaxing life to move in with Livia or does Livia move to see Little Sky despite her reservations about whether Daisy could still hear or not this is the future she wants for herself and her. "Helleborin daughter? For the moment they’re enjoying life in the present and hellebrin are both like digitalis, which I've also used before, but there's saporin and protoanemonin as wellputting the future on the back burner. It's a very nasty cocktail}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1786482126|title=The Janus Stone (Dr Ruth Galloway)|author=Elly Griffiths|rating=4."'5|genre=CrimeAnd now Daisy has met her rather sticky |summary=Builders were demolishing an old house in Norwich - the site was going to hold seventy- and graphically effluent five 'luxury' apartments - end, and Violet has become Daisy, Daisy sets her sights on when they discovered the bones of a child beneath a doorway. There was no skull. Was this a new townritual killing or murder? Inevitably, a new identity andDr Ruth Galloway finds herself working with DCI Harry Nelson. It's difficult as Ruth knows, most importantlybut Nelson doesn't, a new victim. Daisy has problems with her memory - the identities go back so far that sometimes she can barely remember who is she is now, let alone all pregnant with his child as a result of the whos she's been one night they spent together some three months ago. Her condition will be obvious beforelong, and most certainly not the who with whom she beganleast because Ruth is prone to sudden bouts of sickness. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847243843</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste0008551324|title=Jonathan Wild: Conman and CutpurseThe Devil You Know (D S Max Craigie)|author=Neil Lancaster|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryCrime|summary=Born towards It's unusual for anyone from the end of Hardie family to approach the seventeenth century Jonathan Wild was to become police. Neither side likes or has any respect for the eighteenth centuryother. But Davie Hardie is struggling in prison and he's most famous criminal, plying his trade in prepared to tell the police where the body of a rather curious fashionmissing person is buried and who was responsible for her death. He was born in Wolverhampton of parents described as ''mean but honest'' This person, he promises, is someone big and it will be worth the police doing what he wants. It seems likely that And what he first travelled wants is to London as be transferred to an open prison to serve the servant remainder of a lawyer where he was eventually to settle, leaving his wife sentence and child to fend for themselvesget an early parole date. It was whilst serving a term of imprisonment in Wood Street Compter Not much to ask, is it? The new Deputy Police Constable doesn't think so and she's even prepared to do the other thing that Hardie demanded - make certain that he mixed DS Max Craigie and anyone who works with the cream of Londonhim is kept well away from what's criminal underclass and learned the rudiments of his tradehappening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848682190</amazonuk>

  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=K M Grant0008405026|title=Paradise Red A Stranger in the Family (Perfect Fire TrilogyMaeve Kerrigan 11)|author=Jane Casey

|genre=TeensCrime|summary=We It's sixteen years since nine-year-old Rosalie Marshall disappeared from her bed one summer night. She was never found and the investigation ground to a halt. Now, her mother, Helena, and her father are back dead in their bed. Initially, it looks like a straightforward murder/suicide but there's something about the south positioning of France for the third bodies that makes DS Maeve Kerrigan and final timeher boss DI Josh Derwent suspicious. In one corner, What looked as though it was going to be an open-and-shut case is now a complex double murder. Kerrigan is convinced that the explanation lies in Rosalie'Frenchs disappearance: others (such as Derwent's boss, Una Burt) are less convinced.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0571379877|title=The Kellerby Code|author=Jonny Sweet|rating=3.5|genre=Crime|summary=Edward Jevons is a working-class young man, obsessed with King Louis and his henchmen rampaging throughupper-class friends, warring in the name of peaceRobert and Stanza. Robert's a theatre director. In another cornerHe's also self-obsessed, the local peopledemanding, struggling in the harsh environment handsome and entitled and none too pleased uses Edward to see their corner of the world the location run errands for religious wars, him. Edward has been in love with the Cathar Stanza since their university days - and he''heretics'' also presents drunkenly confided how he feels to Robert. The lines are drawn, Most men in Robert's position would stay away from Stanza or tell Edward that a realistically convoluted way, and this book will see one of our heroes cross one such line, just as other people make their own momentous decisions. It will take all relationship had begun between them but he's not like most men: Edward is left to stumble upon the narrative skills two of the land itself to get the story across to usthem kissing in a dark passageway.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847247075</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Camilla NoliJo Callaghan|title=The Mother's TaleLeave No Trace

|genre=Women's FictionCrime|summary=''It When a man is early evening. I am suckling my infant son… We are picture perfect. Madonna and child''.  No doubt about it: found crucified on the top of a new mother totally smitten with hill in Nuneaton, DCS Kat Frank finds herself assigned to the case alongside her son. Zach is adorable. Quiet. Undemanding. A happysidekick, generally relaxed, childthe AI detective Lock. Gorgeous.  But Zach isnIt't her s their first-bornlive case together, having previously been very successful with several cold cases. First But when there was Cassieis a second body found crucified a few days later, Kat is suddenly struggling with a potential serial killer and a very high profile case that draws a lot of unwanted attention to their AI Future Policing project. A child who entered Will they be able to solve the world screaming case in time, or will Kat find herself taken off the case and has since learned exactly what power she can wring with such lungs. Not yet two years old, Cassie adores her fatherpotentially, but even him she manipulates. Her mother she terrorises.out of a career?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1409101584</amazonuk>139851120X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=AQA 633361399613073|title=More Brilliant AnswersMoral Injuries|author=Christie Watson|rating=4.5|genre=TriviaThrillers|summary=If you've got Olivia, Laura and Anjali met on the first day of medical school and their friendship would keep them inseparable for a quarter of a century. Olivia is ruthlessly ambitious, which is a question bonus when you can text those nice people at AQA 63336 and they'll do their best aim to provide you with be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Laura is a prompt perfectionist and accurate answera trauma doctor. Over Anjali is the free spirit of the last five years group and she becomes a GP. When we first meet them they've answered some twenty million questions re at a drug and each autumn they publish a book with the best alcohol-fuelled party and most interesting of the yearit's answersgoing to end in tragedy. ThereWe don's some fun to t know who suffered the tragedy or the consequences. Twenty-five years later there will be had in this yearan eerily similar event that will impact the three friends. This time, it's booktheir teenage children who are involved.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683262</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick O'Brien0241636604|title=You Are The First Kid On MarsTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson

|genre=For SharingAutobiography|summary=It is If you were to bring up an image of a scicity banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-fi future of no danger whatsoeverstripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with no technological breakdownviolence, poverty and injustice. There was no fatal meteor strike, posh public school on his CV - but that he had been to the London School of course Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only to be expected for this marketenvy. I say it more He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to highlight how well the book has been illustratedbe stupid. Digital airbrush techniques and more have taken the antiseptic sheen off the whole experienceIt was his ability at what was, essentially, but have still allowed for a great detail in the machinerycard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, and also this turned into permanent employment as a lovely warmth in the face of the lad we're empathising withtrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399246347</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Naylus1035021803|title=The DresskeeperAntique Hunter's Guide to Murder|author=C L Miller|rating=43.5|genre=Confident ReadersCrime|summary=Things are pretty grim for PickyIt's twenty years since Freya Lockwood has been back to the English country village where she grew up. She is thirteen years old, being bullied at school, and has to spend 's back now because of a request for help from her weekends helping her singlebeloved aunt, working mum to take care of her little brother and her senile grandmotherCarole. One evening, at her GranFreya's former mentor and Carole's houseclose friend, Arthur Crockleford, is dead and the circumstances seem suspicious, she goes up into to say the attic and tries on an old dress that she finds inside an old chestleast. The dress turns out Arthur was the reason why Freya had not been back to be magicthe village: Arthur, and she suddenly finds herself back in 17th Century Londonfeels, struggling with a strange man who is calling her 'Amelia' and is trying to kill let herdown badly. Picky ends up embroiled Even though they were in Amelia's 17th century life business together as antique hunters, she tries has not felt able to find out be near the man or pursue the profession she loved. After the split, she worked in a cafe, met and married James (on the truth rebound from the love of who is attempting to murder herlife, at the same time as trying to avoid arousing suspicion with her strange behaviour whenever she returns to the present daywho was murdered) and Freya and James have now divorced.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956122280</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=John Abbott Nez |title=Cromwell DixonI's Sky-Cycle|rating=4|genre=For Sharing|summary=Meet Cromwell Dixonve heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. He's Well, I must confess that there have been more than a real tinkerer, forever few decades of technology in a barn or somewhere building something manically unusualmy lifetime. Luckily - although his long-suffering mother may disagree I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that word it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - hefrankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I's around at m reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the birth of powered flightlatest conspiracy theorist. Will his plans for I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a pedalled air machine work?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0399250417</amazonuk>way I could understand.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue MoorcroftSunny Singh|title=Starting OverHotel Arcadia|rating=43.5|genre=Women's FictionThrillers |summary=The story opens when Tess bumps her old reliable car into Hotel Arcadia is a luxury hotel in an unnamed city that has suddenly been violently taken over by a breakdown truckterrorist group. That's rather convenient Hiding from the terrorists who are rampaging through, killing everyone on site, since she isn't hurtthere is Sam, a wartime photographer and Abhi, the guy driving it is able hotel manager. As Abhi continues to try to tow her care remotely for the residents who are still alive in the hotel, he forms a bond with Sam who refuses to his garagebe cowed by events, and then give keeps on venturing out of her a lift room to try to capture what's happened through her new homephotography. Naturally, since this is Although they only ever talk over the 'chick-lit' genrephone, Tess their friendship grows as Abhi tries to help her keep safe and the truck-driver, who goes they both wait to see if they will be rescued before they are discovered by the unlikely name of Ratty (an abbreviation of his surname) feel mutual antipathy of the sort that's clearly going to lead, sooner or later, to strong attractionterrorists.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906931224</amazonuk>086154742X

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Beard1529153298|title=It's A Don's LifeThe List of Suspicious Things|author=Jennie Godfrey

|genre=LifestyleGeneral Fiction|summary=Professor Mary BeardIt's 1979 and Margaret Thatcher is Prime Minister. (A woman? I mean, feisty Cambridge classics donhonestly...) She's not what's worrying Miv's family, keeps an eye open for architectural detail wherever she goesthough. Women have been disappearing. Even on holiday Well, they've been murdered, but to have 'disappeared' doesn't sound quite so frightening. Miv's upset because she notices 's overheard that her father wants to move the changing urban landscape and records interesting parallels with ancient cities in her sparky blogfamily 'Down South'. She When you're from Yorkshire, Down South is engaged in writing a detailed history of Pompeii and suddenly realisesfrightening, whilst perambulating the backstreets of the Mexican city of Oaxacanforeign place, that this is exactly what Pompeii must have been likebest avoided. She observes the low rise shops For Miv, dirt tracks across dusty streets and the close juxtaposition of rich and poor. Impressive portals of grand residential properties tower above humble workshops, and this prompts move would mean leaving her into imaginative reconstruction. In her blogbest friend, from which this intriguing book is culledSharon, and she tells us about just how Oaxacan encourages her 'll do anything to ponder again the curious cart ruts of Pompeiiprevent that. She even finds walls splashed with political slogans that are just like Roman ''dipinti''. Indeed, here in Mexico, s not worried about the local library displays an edifying message in Spanish which originates in Cicerodangers or that her Mum's speech in his Pro Archia, ''Science and letters are the nourishment of youth and the diversion of old agestopped talking - to anyone.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682517</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Tremayne1398524085|title=The Loveday ConspiracyHas Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter?|author=Nicci French|rating=45|genre=Historical FictionCrime|summary=Trevowan Manor has been the home of the Loveday family for generations. It will still be owned by a Loveday Charlotte Salter was expected at her husband's fiftieth birthday party but St John Loveday lost the house on the throw of a dice before killing himself – and now his cousin Tristan has the housenever turned up. St John's twinHer children, Adamsons Niall, vows that he will punish the man responsible. Amelia has been forced from Trevowan Paul and Ollie and is now living in a cottage with the other dispossessed womenher daughter, Etty. As if this wasn't enough of a problem, her son from are all worried but - strangely - her first marriagehusband, RichardAlec, has become even more than wayward and Amelia is forced to make a difficult choicenot.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755347676</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Julian Barnes|title=Staring at the Sun|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Jean's first Incident involved Uncle Leslie Shortly afterwards, hyacinths Etty and golf tees. It's perhaps best forgottenGreg, but Jean doesn't forget. Uncle Leslie figures large in her life - mostly on find the golf course - until the War comes and he runs away to America. Hebody of Greg's replaced by Tommy Prosserfather, a grounded pilot who once saw the sun rise twice in one day and excites as many questions in Jean as he ever answers. Tommy is replaced by Michael, a policemanDuncan Ackerley, whom Jean eventually marries. He doesn't know why minks are excessively tenacious of life and he doesn't much care. But Jean does. She cares much less for the Dutch cap that Michael sent her off to obtain before the wedding and much less again for their rather disastrous adventures in the bedroom. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099540096</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexandra Bruce|title=2012: Science or Superstition|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recentlyriver. The first book to feature the story It was from a Yale professor, in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, an easy assumption for the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice police to make that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start Duncan had murdered Charlie and then, committed suicide when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period. Surely they he couldn't predict stand the future from their guilt. The Salter children are not convinced but there'primitive' state s little else they can do but get on with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>their lives and wonder about what really happened.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeff Kinney1035906708|title=Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog DaysDiva|author=Daisy Goodwin

|genre=Confident ReadersGeneral Fiction|summary=It is a truth universally acknowledged that school summer holidays are We tend to think of Maria Callas as Greek, but she was born to Greek parents in Manhattan, New York, in December 1923 and only enjoyable if you want moved to enjoy summerAthens when she was thirteen. Greg here doesnHer original surname was Kalogeropoulos but her father changed it to 'Callas't want to notice make it, and would prefer to spend his days curtains drawn, face glued to late night TV or a computer game, hand either clicking away at a controller or shovelling more manageable in snacksthe States. The last thing he needs, then, is his When she was back in Athens - supposedly so that she could get appropriate training for her voice - she was raised under the Nazi occupation by a mother, on a ''family togetherness'' trip, who mercilessly exploited her and on a budgetmade no secret of her preference for her elder sister, with bad ideas of what Greg should be doing insteadJackie.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141327650</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rick YanceyChristopher Edge|title=The Monstrumologist: The Terror BeneathBlack Hole Cinema Club

|summary=In late 19th century America, young Will Henry has been the apprentice of the stern, forbidding Dr Warthrop since the death of Lucas and his parentsfriends are all booked in for a movie marathon at their local cinema, who were also employed by the doctor. The twelve year old boy a place that has seen many things in his service to the monstrumologist - a specialist in monsters - but nothing can prepare him for the fateful day when an elderly grave robber brings the doctor the twin corpses nickname of a young girl and the headless creature with fangs in his chest who had tried to feast on her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184738546X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Whitelaw|title=Midsummer Madness|rating=4|genre=Women's Fiction|summary=YouThe Black Hole'll like Sophie Gresham. She wanted All big movie fans, they're looking forward to be an actress but suffers from paralysing stage fright lots of exciting films, and when many, many snacks! However, as the side effects became too much for her she worked behind the scenes. She's a movie starts, they very good prompt despite the fact quickly realise that you need to wrap up something about this new film format is very warmly to survive in the prompt corner she loves her job different, and most of the cast in the theatre companythey are swept up into an adventure they couldn't even imagine. It's a bit of a shock though when she realises that But as they lurch from one film genre to the guest producer from New York is Joe Harrisonnext, the man she helped can they figure out when he had nothing what on earth is going on? Will they ever get back to eat the cinema, and nowhere to sleep. Sophie was a little softer in those days – in the meantime she's had to develop a protective shell.their real lives?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089147</amazonuk>1839942738

{{newreview|author=Bonnie Greer|title=Obama Music|rating=3|genre=History|summary=This is an interesting readRosevear, but unless I'm missing somethinga remote and partially forgotten island, survives on luring ships into the rocks and plundering the focus wrecks. Mira, like her mother before her, is one of the book seems seven who swim out to survey the ruins – rescuing any survivors and any treasure that lies within. But when the Council Watch lays a little difficult trap to grasp. Itend the wrecking, they capture the island's best if I start with the authorleader and Mira's intentions father. Desperate to save him from death, Mira makes a bargain with a wreck survivor who is as charming as set out in her Prologue. It he is a mixture of tales of secretive and with only coordinates to guide her own life growing up on the South Side, she writes, interspersed with stories and observations about Obama, linking it with sets off in search of a family secret that lies buried deep in the music, musicians and music scene, past and present, including hip hop, country, classical, and rock'n'rollsea. All of theseWith only nine days to unearth what might save her father, she notes, were heard on as her journey takes her from the President's Inauguration Day. To them she adds watched streets of foreign islands to the blues, gospel, soul and jazz heart of the South Sidesmuggler's territory, when the people began Mira must be determined to stop at nothing to build save the great institutions future of her home and great solidarity that enabled him to become the ones she holds most powerful man on the planetdear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906558248</amazonuk>0008664730

 {{newreview|author=P J Parrish|title=Dead of Winter|rating=4|genre=Crime|summary=Loon Lake, Michigan is picture-postcard pretty – an idyll that sits serenely and snugly in the midst of a pine-peppered winter wonderland. Louis Kincaid needs a little serenity in his life and on arrival in Loon Lake he feels almost as if he has come home. Life has not been easy for Kincaid. A troubled, unhappy child of mixed race, passed around various institutions and foster homes, Louis figures that if he is going to put some integrity back into the world, he will need to wear a badge to do it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391346</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Russell Celyn JonesJames Sherwood Metts|title=The Ninth Wave (New Stories from the Mabinogion) Planet Storyland

|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers|summary=Pwyll rules Things have been a medieval-style fiefdom in a post-climate change Walesbit sticky for the Earthlings. Life is different in many ways - thereAI and automation have been proceeding apace, often replacing jobs they's a new-but-old social order built on feudalism re paid to do and other tasks that took time to accomplish. Just as they were beginning to get used to all this technological change and horsepower is the main means starting to think of transportother, new ways to spend time, along came an awful pandemic. But in many ways it's Life was pretty much the same - people still fight one anothershut down and, towns still have sink estatesalong with it, rich boys still have too much time all the many daily social interactions on their hands and precious little meaning in their liveswhich they depend so heavily. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115146</amazonuk>1736128426

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Owen SheersMatthew Tree|title=White Ravens (New Stories from the Mabinogion)We'll Never Know

|summary=In the old taleTimothy Wyndham wants nothing more than to be different from his father, Branwen is the sister a drunk and chronic underachiever whose dreams of Bendigeidfran - the giant King being exceptional at any of Britain. She marries the King of Ireland, who doesn't treat her well. She manages to send Bendigeidfran a message via a tamed starling his artistic passions all failed miserably and war and killings ensue. In this new tale, a young girl has just walked away from her brothers who, in the wake had endless crises of the devastating foot and mouth outbreak, are despoiling their heritage by rustling and illegally slaughtering sheepself confidence. She meets an old man who tells her a story involving the superstitions about the ravens in the Tower of London, propaganda work during World War IISo Tim applied himself to his studies, cultivated his abilities rather than his daydreams and an equally doomed love affairset himself high but achievable ambitions. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1854115030</amazonuk>B0CVFXPGP8

{{newreview|author=Jennifer Bohnet|title=Follow Your Star|rating=3.5|genre=WomenWithin a remote mountain pass, far away from the world, lies Silverton; a town under the protection of the Briar's Fiction|summary=It's three years since Nanette Weston left Monaco. She'd been engaged to , a Formula 1 racing driver family of witches who protect the town and had lived the life of wider world from the wealthy but a serious car accident had ended all thatDarklands. The accident could have killed Though she has always wished for magic, Ellie Briar is the first non-witch to be born into her fiancé family for generations and as such since she lost was young, her driving licence because of training as a steward revolved around letters and administration rather than spells and potions. When her grandmother suddenly dies, Ellie's cousin Audra becomes the alcohol she'd consumed. Her slow recovery was hindered by Briar Witch, the end of her engagement but shetown's found some contentment in being a nanny to two young childrenleader, and Ellie takes her place beside her. When As challenges come her friend way left, right and employercentre, VanessaEllie uncovers the rare ability to communicate with the dead, remarries putting her at the heart of a maelstrom of chaos. Reeling from one family secret to another, Ellie must decide who to trust and takes an extended honeymoon in the Amazon Nanette is asked determine what to take do as the children back Briar witches' legacy, everything they have sacrificed to Monaco where their father livessurvive, is under threat.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089090</amazonuk>1803364548

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=J R Stephenson1529900360|title=Crooked JusticeThe Ghost Orchid|author=Jonathan Kellerman|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=Meet Barry Johns. YouIt hadn'll see him coming - het been Lt Milo Sturgis's five hundred pounds if fault that Alex Delaware had been badly injured but he's an ouncefelt responsible and even after Alex recovered, Sturgis was reluctant to ask for his help on difficult cases. Just don't ever lend him money His assertions that there were only open-and- he wonshut cases which didn't pay it back. A businessman with a share need the help of a nightclub on Cyprus, he goes there psychologist only worked for a customary breakwhile. Finally, and finds his sort-of moll-type sort-of girlfriend has been installed as it was Robin, Delaware's partner, who nudged Milo into asking for help again. She knew that the involvement was something that the bar dancerman she loved needed. He manages to tread both on The next case did look simple, though. Two lovers were murdered in the toes swimming pool of his local colleague and some Greek rivalsa remote property in Bel Air. And when a rival in London chases him up for thousands of pounds owed he decides He was the heir to an Italian shoe empire and she is married to pack up an extremely rich man and shut up. Itit's a big stone that hides him, but he leaves a very awkward trail for everyone wanting to upturn it and get their revengenot the Italian.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955855713</amazonuk> But which of them was the primary target?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Baker1529395224|title=They've Got Your NumberLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=If you are Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the slightest bit paranoid, worry strain that being on-call put on his father''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not s life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a number, but family friend who was a free man (or woman), then vet and was convinced this may not be was the book job for youhim. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worrieswith so many students - been his dream since he was a child. Ifanything, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanityhe' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit d wanted to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to saya professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rebecca Tope0861541774|title=Fear in the CotswoldsA Nye of Pheasants|author=Steve Burrows

|summary=Thea Osborne is a house sitter by profession. When people go away she moves into their homes and looks after their animals and the property. This time itDCI Domenic Jejeune's winter close friend and she's spending former colleague, Danny Maik, has taken a month short holiday in the Cotswold village of HampnettSingapore to meet up with an old ally, Guy Trueman. It wouldn't be Maik was involved in a street brawl - he would later maintain that he was facing a man armed with a job for all of us but Thea delights in getting to know the local people knife - and the areahe killed a Ghurka. In the past she's also been involved with the police in solving various cases Initially, he faced a charge of manslaughter but it looks as though evidence came to light that suggested that he might have come planned to an end as murder the relationship she had with DS Phil Hollis has crumbledman. For Now he could be facing the first time Thea feels like an outsider – and a foolish one - when she finds footsteps in the snow which lead to a body in a nearby fielddeath penalty. When the Domenic Jejeune can do nothing to help as any interference from another police finally arrive the body has disappeared force could provoke a diplomatic incident and the police obviously wonder if shewouldn's imagined it t help Danny at all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007478</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tad TulejaAlexander McCall Smith|title=A Dictionary of Foreign Words and PhrasesThe Perfect Passion Company|rating=34.5|genre=Home and FamilyGeneral Fiction|summary=Take The Perfect Passion Company is a look at the cover design of this bookdating agency in Edinburgh, run by Ness and you'd be mistaken for thinking this was a trivia compendium for operating as an alternative to all those foreign words that have taken part the online apps in our English language since whenever they crossed over from their original homesproviding a more personal, tailored service. But Ness has asked her younger cousin Katie if she could come and look after the title business, as Ness is definitely honest, planning to take a trip to Canada to get away for this a while. Katie is coming out of a break up with a dictionary book firstbad boyfriend, for referenceand so jumps at the chance to come home to Edinburgh. And so begins this new story from Alexander McCall Smith, bringing us to an Edinburgh we already love, thanks to 44 Scotland Street and a browser for the trivia buff secondIsabel Dalhousie novels, but with some new characters who quickly begin to charm. Katie has no experience in running a business, or in match-making, but Ness has full confidence in her abilities, and there's always her very helpful (and rather handsome) neighbour, William, to lend a hand…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0709089562</amazonuk>1846976596

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anne Rice0811771741|title=Angel TimeInstaKnits for Baby|author=Melissa Leapman|rating=2.54|genre=General FictionCrafts|summary=Toby OMelissa Leapman's 'Dare is an extremely efficient hit man with a passion 'InstaKnits for music, history and playing his beloved lute. HeBaby''s also something gives us a collection of a lost soul having turned his back on God many years agoknits from toys to blankets. One day while on a Some will be quick knits - others are of the 'joblong, cosy afternoons in front of the fire' he is visited variety. The projects are divided by an Angel who offers him a chance at redemption. Toby agrees to become the Angeltime they's human instrument ll take to complete - less than five hours, five to ten hours, ten to twenty hours and help save lives rather more than take themtwenty hours. All the projects are attractive, modern and useable. He is sent on an assignment to help a Jewish couple accused of murder in 13th Century England I perhaps show my age when I wonder about 'social-media-worthy projects' but that's me being picky.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178140</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MortimerDean Koontz|title=1415: Henry V's Year of GloryThe Bad Weather Friend|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryParanormal|summary=The medievalBenny is having a terrifically bad day. He loses his job, he loses his fiancee, and his house gets trashed. Oh, and someone has delivered a really weird, in fact timedisturbing coffin-honouredsized object to his home, view of King Henry V as one of Englandand it's greatest heroes possible that whoever or whatever was propagated though not originated by Shakespeareinside is the thing that has trashed his house! The thing is, and again more recently Benny is the very last person to some extent by Olivier's portrayal in filmdeserve all this bad luck. He is a nice person. A really nice person. At least one historian So fortunately for Benny it turns out that the delivery to his house is a new friend, a bad weather friend called Spike, who has called been sent to help him since Benny is clearly under attack from nefarious forces for being a good person. Spike is going to take care of Benny, and will certainly take care of Benny's enemies, if he, Benny, and Harper (a waitress slash Private Investigator who finds herself roped into Benny'the greatest man that ever ruled England''s wild adventure) can figure out who exactly they are.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224079921</amazonuk>1662500491

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah GregoryAdam Stower|title=Dancing With The DeadMurray and Bun|rating=34.5|genre=Literary FictionConfident Readers |summary=I wanted Murray is supposed to be a humble, tidy and friendly cat, one who is able to read sleep and eat and eat and sleep and, well, whatever takes his fancy next of the two. But he's a bad magician'Dancing with s cat, so his favourite bun has been turned into a hyperactive sticky rabbit called Bun, and the Dead''catflap they both use can chuck them out, because I'm interested in family history. The blurb on not into the regular back garden, but into a world of the book also mentioned Gill – our heroine of the piece frightening adventure and whiffs. This time round it drops them into a Viking land, where a troll hunter is expected – well, one much bigger than Murray was moving from Bristol (my current home) , to Lincolnshire (where I was born be honest, but he's turned up and brought up). I felt with all these links, the novel could not fail he'll have to interest me – but this was not the case.do…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1904529305</amazonuk>0008561249

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Miss ReadB0C47LV1PC|title=Christmas at Thrush GreenFragility|author=Mosby Woods

|genre=Women's Literary Fiction|summary=Set in the rural village of Thrush GreenCan you make a ''Yo birthing person'' joke? And if you could, this book is the latest in a series surrounding familiar characters. There question should you make it? Or is the feisty Ella Bembridgequestion if you did, who would it land? The catch is finally having to admit that old age is creeping up as her eyesight failsthe answer for both could well be... Friends such as Dimity and Charles Henstock are concerned about her, but she refuses to accept any help. Albert Piggott has decided it's time to retire now that his wife, Nelly, is a successful cafe owner and can afford to take care of him! And relative newcomer Phil Hurst and her husband are arranging the local nativity play, despite a number of set-backsno. Will everything be in place for Christmas? And will independent Ella make a decision about her future?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409101592</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Matt and Dave|title=Yuck's Robotic Bottom|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=It's concerned me for a while that itFragility's relatively easy to pick up early readers for girls – princesses' is set as the city of Portland, magic soft toysOregon, mermaids and pets abound – but there's a much smaller choice for boys. It's important too with early readers that cautiously begins to emerge from the content is ''interesting'' and reading becomes more than just something which you ''have'' to do at school and moves into being fun. Matt and Dave have found restrictions imposed during the answer in Yuck.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847382991</amazonuk>covid pandemic

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John E Smelcer1529431735|title=The Great DeathWinter Visitor|author=James Henry

|genre=General FictionCrime|summary=It'As Western Europeans settled Alaskas February 1991 and Essex is bitingly cold, they brought with them diseases against which made Bruce Hopkins' return all the indigenous people had no natural immunitymore surprising. At He'd been exiled on the beginning of the twentieth century, fully two thirds of all Alaska natives perished from Costa del Sol as a wanted drug smuggler for a pandemic of measles, smallpox, and influenzadecade. No community was spared. In most cases, half of a village The return has come about because he's population died within had a week. In some casesletter from his ex-wife, there were no survivors. It was the end of an ancient way of life. Natives still refer to the dreadful period as the Great Death.'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1842709194</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Maxine Barry|title=River Deep|rating=3.5|genre=Womensaying that she's Fiction|summary=Two young women both have a love of the Thames. Melisande Rayill and hasn's beloved hotel, the Ray of Sunshine is on the river bankt long to live. It's here that guests come who want hard to feel any sympathy when Hopkins is abducted, stripped to be pampered his underwear and looked after in the way that only the best hotels can do well, but when Wendell James checks in sent to the hotel it's not pampering he's looking for. He's buying a piece of land not far from the Ray of Sunshine and he's sussing out the competition. There's something personal watery grave in there too – if his new hotel means that the Ray boot of Sunshine goes under then that would be an added bonusa stolen Ford Sierra. There's just Is it a warning from a slight doubt in his mind when Spanish gang or a red-haired maid catches his eye.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0709088930</amazonuk>}}problem closer to home?